but a profusion of
aromatic plants, cultivated either for medicinal purposes, or to
serve in the fabrication of essences and powders, which the Sisters
distribute over the world in tiny bottles and small pillow-cases and
bags, in order to raise funds for the poor.

In the house, which, having been erected for a private family, is
not well suited for its present purpose, everything is an example of
cleanliness and order. The hospital is in the main part of the
building, and is fitted up with every possible convenience. A large
apothecaries' hall is attached to it, furnished with every appliance
that medical art has devised, and under the superintendence of a
highly-educated professional man. It is most affecting to enter the
great sick-room, and see the gentle Sisters in their modest attire
ministering to the patients, bending over them with their sweet and
cheerful countenances, as if they felt that relief from pain and
restoration to life and its enjoyments depended on their smiles. It
is scarcely necessary to say, that the hospital is almost always
full. Sometimes, indeed, the floor is occupied with extra beds; for
the Sisters will never close their doors to any who apply, even
though they should have to abandon their own simple places of repose
to the new-comer, and stretch themselves on the bare floor.

We observed, in one of our visits, an old woman who was lying in one
of the beds of the hospital, in a kind of trance, neither sleeping
nor waking, apparently suffering no pain, but quite insensible to
everything which passed around her. Her complaint was that of
extreme old age, mere physical exhaustion. She had been for many
years a pensioner, fed and clothed by the Sisters: having outlived
all her relations, and having no friends in the world but them, she
had come in, as she said herself, 'to die in peace among them.' Not
far from her lay a girl, about sixteen or seventeen years of age,
whose extreme paleness, or rather marble whiteness, vied with the
snowy sheets which covered all but that lily face; and but for the
quivering of the little frill of her cap, and the slow movement of
her large blue eyes, it would have been difficult to believe that it
was not the alabaster figure of some saint that reposed there. The
superior looked kindly and sadly upon her, bent down, kissed her
pale forehead, and went on; and though the sufferer did not move or
speak, nor the feeble head turn, her large blue eyes followed the